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Elli Theobald

I am coming to UW to learn more about plants, the communities they live in, and how dynamics within those communities are likely to change with the changing climate. While at here, I will work in the Hille Ris Lambers lab and study alpine and subalpine wildflower communities and their pollinators on Mount Rainier. Using the elevation gradient I will try to tease out the potential consequences of climate change. For example, plants and their pollinators may respond to climate change differently or disproportionally. If this happens, they might be subject to “trophic mismatch” wherein plant reproduction becomes increasingly pollen limited and pollinators become increasingly resource limited. Trophic mismatch could therefore have implications on community composition, pollinator abundance, seed dispersal ability and range limits, and generally ecosystem function. I am interested in whether some plant species are more susceptible to trophic mismatch than others.

I am coming back to Washington state after four years teaching middle school and high school in Oakland, California. Before teaching, I studied Biology and Environmental Science at Colby College in Maine. As an undergrad I was involved in a number of research projects including surveying vegetation recovery on Mount Saint Helens, investigating the pollination regime of a Costa Rican weed, and studying habitat-specific behavior in Black Capped Chickadees. As a part of the Hille Ris Lambers lab, I will have the opportunity to build on both my research and teaching experiences, and I can't wait!